I have worked on computers -- taking them apart, putting them back together, and everything in between -- for over four years now. Machines, including computers, are created from several constituent parts physically connected by hardware (wires) and integrated by software. The number of parts depends on the complexity of the machine. The functions of most machines we encounter today are merely the sum of their parts. By contrast, machine learning, in the words of Arthur Samuel in 1959 gives "computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed".  In other words, machine learning allows computers and other machines to move past the sum of their parts and perform new, complex functions.